By Julien Ponthus
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's top share index slipped on Tuesday as financials fell amid lingering jitters over the North Korean crisis.
While investors were in no mood for a sell-off, caution was still very much present.
"It is strictly impossible to know what could happen in the next coming hours", Saxo Bank said in a note to its clients, referring to North Korea, whose nuclear test on Sunday triggered international condemnation.
Britain's blue-chip FTSE 100 (FTSE) ended down 0.52 percent at 7,372.92 points, with financials taking most points off the index.
Mid caps (FTMC) however rose 0.15 percent as a tie-up announced between Schneider Electric (PA:SCHN) and Aveva (L:AVV) sent shares in the British group up 25.7 percent, their biggest one-day gain in more than two years.
The publication of the IHS Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers' Index for the British services sector, which fell to 53.2 in August from 53.8 in July and below the median forecast of 53.5 in a Reuters poll of economists, did not alter the mood of investors.
Provident (L:PFG), which plummeted 57 percent this month after a profit warning, was the biggest FTSE loser, down 6.5 percent.
Elsewhere among financials, HSBC (L:HSBA), Barclays (L:BARC), Standard Chartered (L:STAN) and Lloyds (L:LLOY) all ended in the red with losses of between 0.4 and 1.5 percent.
Shares in precious metals miner Fresnillo (L:FRES), which posted the best performance on Monday, surrendered some of its previous gains with a 2.1 percent retreat. Randgold Resources (L:RRS) ended up 0.1 percent.
Top FTSE gainers came from different sectors: entertainment group Merlin (L:MERL) rose 2.1 percent, followed by bookmaker Paddy Power (L:PPB) and water company Severn Trent (L:SVT).
In midcap stocks, housebuilder Redrow (L:RDW) rose 4.4 percent after posting better-than-expected 2016-17 pre-tax profits and saying revenue and profit expectations would continue to rise into 2020.
Halfords (L:HFD) rose 2.5 percent after the British bicycle and car part retailer kept its full-year profit guidance as it reported retail like-for-like sales growth of 3.5 percent in the 20 weeks to Aug. 18.
TalkTalk (L:TALK) shares were slightly higher, up 0.8 percent, after the Financial Times reported it was exploring an exit from its mobile operations.
888 Holdings (L:888) fell 3.7 percent, giving up earlier gains. The online betting company swung to a half-year loss because of charges for tax provisions in Germany and a financial penalty imposed by the UK Gambling Commission.